The festival’s opening concert “Dear Mikalojus” is the dedication from this year festival’s artistic directors—composer Agnė Matulevičiūtė and pianist Marta Finkelštein—to the epicenter of the festival that is Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis. The concert will take place on the 21st of August at 18:00, at the Oginskis Palace in Plungė.
Using their ongoing two-year project “Dear, Dear”, in which they pay tribute to their most important musical inspirations—John Cage, Meredith Monk, Nils Frahm, Hania Rani, Maurice Ravel, Angelo Badalamenti, Suzanne Ciani, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Chilly Gonzales, and Nicol Jaar—as a jumping off point, the program becomes a map of their experiences and inspirations, in which familiar and beloved works that shaped their musical identity, are reimagined with a new sound.
This time the artists will engage in an acoustic dialog about Čiurlionis: from very personal childhood associations to the interpretation of pieces, created for the anniversary, to sharing their favorite Čiurlionis’ compositions, also sharing autobiographical facts about the author, discovered during the artistic visual development of the festival, that inspire their music, and even some subtle nods to other compositions that will be heard in the festival. Simultaneously, this is also a love letter between the artists– a love shared between two sides of the creative act.
Composer Agnė Matulevičiūtė and pianist Marta Finkelštein started performing as a duet in 2021, when they found fellowship while trying to combine the sounds of a piano and analog/modular synthesizers. Agnė’s field of interest consists of performing arts, theatre, cinema and interdisciplinary projects, and she’s also an active performer under the pseudonym Agnès M.
On the other hand, Marta has many years of experience in the creation and performance of modern music. Thus, such different strengths and backgrounds of both artists, connected by their musical ideas, complement and complete each other. This duet, unrivaled in composition by any other in Lithuania, reveals the various modern expression possibilities, when combining the elements of acoustic and electronic sounds and focusing attention on the expression of keyboard instruments. We invite you to embark on this journey inspired by Čiurlionis at the concert on the 21st of August at 18:00, at the Oginskis Palace in Plungė.
The festival is funded by the Lithuanian Council for Culture and Vilnius City Municipality.